Day 16: Home!

Home at last!  Yes, I might be a little late in posting this, but we did get home yesterday, Saturday, just after 2 pm.   After getting home, we had a lot to do to get unpacked and get the house opened up.  We were still tired, after only a few hours of sleep, and very relieved to be home.  So we relaxed, ordered a supper, and started getting caught up on some of our TV series.  We both had a very good night's sleep. 

The Atlanta airport did not have many people in it - a few, but nothing you would call "crowded".  I had to go quite a ways to find a place to buy a muffin while we waited for our flight.  Our Delta flight to Detroit was uneventful.  When we arrived, the Delta terminal was a virtual ghost town.  Very few shops and restaurants were open (besides McDonalds).

So now we are settling in and, even though we have no known exposure during our trip home, are doing a self quarantine out of utmost care to avoid any chance of passing it along. 

We have some great memories of a good trip, and saw a new part of the world.  The first 10 days were very good, but the last few posed some large challenges.   Not sure we will ever get back to this part of the world again, but I do heartily recommend seeing it to any fellow traveler.

Day 16 - Almost Home!

We had a nice stay at the Marriott Airport hotel in Sao Paulo.  It was very elegant and just what we needed after rushing through the Sao Paulo airport only to find we missed our flight by less than 15 minutes.  We hit our low point of the day while waiting for the Marriott shuttle, not knowing for sure if we were in the right place.  We both rejoiced when it showed up!  We were able to get a good night's sleep, and enjoyed a great complimentary breakfast before hanging out until it was time to head to the airport late in the afternoon for our flight to Atlanta.

After arriving from Sao Paulo at 6:15AM, Mary and I are now in the Atlanta airport.  We flew in DeltaOne for the overnight flight. In DeltaOne you get 15 sq ft of dedicated space and lay down beds!  I think Mary has now been spoiled and will want this on any future overnight flights.  After watching a movie, we enjoyed a nice dinner, then tried to sleep.  It took a while to find a comfortable position, but we both got several hours of sleep which is way more that we would have gotten in Comfort+ seats.

Clearing customs in Atlanta was a breeze, thanks to having Global Entry cards. We were cleared and heading to our gate less than 1 hour after we landed.   No Covid-19 questions or anything like that.

We have had two morning flights to Detroit cancelled (possibly due to few passengers) so we are waiting out a 3 1/2 hour layover.  But even if anything goes wrong with our last fight, we are happy to be back in the USA where we have many options for getting home. 

We heard yesterday that there are over 1000 passengers still on the Coral Princess, which was forced to leave Buenos Aires last night.  Our prayers are that they can find a place to disembark so they, too, can head home. 

Day 15: Travel Home

What a wild day!  The Argentinean officials kept delaying anyone getting off the ship.  Finally at 2pm they called for all passengers for one flight to leave the ship.  Since our flight was a 4:15 and the airport was an hour away, I started to make plans to move our return fights back 1 day,  But just as I started to do that, they called a second flight to depart -  our flight!  Mary and I hustled down to the gangplank, picked up our luggage, and boarded a bus for the airport.  

When we arrived at the airport at 3:45, we found that we were past the boarding time, but since there were about 200 cruise ship passengers on the same flight, they waited for all of us.  We ended up taking off about 90 minutes late and, due to a luggage issue, we missed our flight to Atlanta.  Delta graciously moved us to the same flight tomorrow, leaving 10PM.  So, I booked the San Paulo Airport Marriott for the night, which is where I'm writing this from.  

So our return is delayed by a day and we have a nice hotel to rest in for the night.  

The adventure continues...

Day 15: Disembarkation Update

Thanks for all the comments wishing us well on our journey home. But the Argentinian authorities are not done with us.

We were sleeping soundly when, at 3:45 am, the captain came on the speakers with an announcement that the Argentinian authorities were requiring fresh temperature test for all passengers so they would be coming to our cabins and we were to remain there.   What a wake up call!  I’m wondering how many people they have doing this since when we did it yesterday morning, it took over 4 hours, using 4 stations with a steady stream of passengers waiting in line.
So we waited, nodding off to sleep a bit with a very long travel day ahead of us.
At 5:00 am, another all-cabin announcement that the health forms we were to turn in should now be placed in our cabin mailboxes for immediate collection.
Announcement #3 came at 5:40 am and was for Argentinian passengers only.  No more going back to sleep!

Finally at 7:25 am the captain announced that that we had been cleared!!   So, without having our temperatures rechecked, we hustled to get breakfast before packing our carry-on's and heading to the Elite lounge.

Ah, the joys of travel!

Day 14: Leaving the Coral Princess

Today is out last day on board the ship.  We spent the afternoon packing up and making sure our suitcases remained under to 50 lb limit.   None of the normal sea day activities in the morning, so I sent some time on a treadmill while watching a movie, and Mary read in the Library.

We ended up anchored for the night due to weather preventing the pilots from boarding as well traffic in the narrow, dredged ship channel to Buenos Aires. We finally got under way after 2 pm today and the captain reported we should dock by midnight. 

We had some additional requirements from the Argentine government.  All passengers with their own flights had to report their information to the ship this evening, and we have to fill out a health form before disembarking tomorrow.  On a positive front, the money I paid for our airport transfer is being refunded so the refundable balance in our on board credit accounts keeps growing. We also received a credit for the two ports we missed.

Mary and I went to the Elite appetizer event before dinner since they had a shrimp fountain.  And if that was not enough shrimp for Mary, she had more in the buffet! 


So now our suitcases are all packed and set out to be picked up, and we are as ready as we can be to head home.  We've seen some wonderful sights, and I heartily recommend this cruise to anyone as it is a quite different part of the world.  There may be one more blog coming about our travel day home... but after 21 hours in transit plus all the catching up at home, it may take me a few days to get to a final blog entry for this trip.

Day 13: Balcony Champaign Breakfast

Our travel agent gave us a gift certificate for a Balcony Champagne Breakfast which we ordered for this morning.  The outside temperatures are warmer now (over 70) so we could enjoy this on our balcony in the sunshine.  I would have never ordered this on our own, but as a benefit, it was great!


It included:

• 1 bottle of champagne
• Two plates with smoked salmon
• Two plates containing two quiche and 2 strips of bacon 
• One fruit plate
• One plate with 8 pastries
• Two carafes containing tea or coffee

Way too much food for two people, but it was delicious, and we felt very decadent enjoying it...  although we are saving the pastries for a mid morning snack.

At lunch today, Princess held their Pastry Extravaganza.  It was not as elegant as we gave seen on larger ships, but still very nice.  It featured many special cakes (the coconut one was very tasty) and a chocolate fountain.  Two of the cakes are pictured above.

In the afternoon I tried my hand at golf putting.  You had 3 attempts to hit a paper cup.  I was one of the few that hit it once, but one guy hit it twice and won.  In the afternoon we did pass close to Uruguay (we were originally schedule to stop at Montevideo) on our way to pick up a pilot.  Mary captured this picture showing construction in the city of Maldonado.

Tonight we had an enjoyable supper, ordering food from the Grill so we could eat while watching the Downton Movie on the big outdoor screen.  It was great getting to watch it again. Both Mary and I picked up on some details we missed in our first viewing.

Cruise Update: All passengers and crew passed the "temperature test" today!  That brought a loud cheer from everyone when it was announced.  Thing are looking good for our being able to disembark on Thursday in Buenos Aires.  The plan is we dock tomorrow, but cannot disembark until the 19th.  

Day 12: At Sea

Well, another sea day and more news about our disembarkation.  The announcement by the Argentinian government last night that it was immediately closing borders to all visitors is, obviously, a concern.  The captain announced today that it appears the government will allow us to be transported to the airport on the 19th, provided the ship submits a current temperature record of all people on board.  Hopefully we will be treated as being "in transit", and not as visitors.

We had a fairly quiet day today, enjoying a British Pub Lunch and watching a movie in our room.  Mary enjoyed some balcony time and I won a medal in a shuffleboard tournament, bring me to a total of 2 while participating in only 5 events.  My new Cape Horn shirt can be seen in the picture.

Tonight was a formal night and dinner featured a Lobster Tail.  It was delicious!  Mary was delighted when Floating Islands showed up to the dessert menu.  I love this particular Chocolate Journey as well as Floating Islands so I ordered both.  I must admit that I did not quite finish all the meringue on my floating islands. 

Tomorrow we will enjoy a champagne breakfast on our balcony, courtesy of our travel agent, Crucon. After that they are calling all passengers to Medical, floor by floor, to have our temperatures recorded. 

The adventure continues!

Day 11: At Sea

This was an unexpected sea day which caused a few changes to our normal sea day routine. Due to the cancelling of our port visit, there was no Tai Chi or Zumba this morning, and two of our four bridge players did not show up this afternoon either.  But there are other things to do on the ship.  Mary and I relaxed, read books, and enjoyed a burger lunch at the grill.

For dinner in the dining room, we each had a chilled coconut soup, and spaghetti carbonara.  We were so pleased to have these favorite dishes that we forgot to take a picture, so you'll have to use your imagination.

This evening we went to two shows.  The first was David Meyers (left picture) who has a unique xylophone-type instrument, and calls his music xylopunk.
After that we went to the Crooners Lounge to hear guitarist Matheus de Camargo who played a variety of music that appealed to our age group. 
Overall a nice musical evening!

As to our cruise update, we heard from the Captain today that after picking up supplies in Montenegro on the 17th, we will sail to Buenos Aires and dock on the 18th, but will not be allowed off the ship on that day.  Argentina wants all people who enter their country to be at least 14 days since being in a known Coronavirus area.  As of midnight on the 18th,  everyone on our ship will meet that criteria so they will let us get off the ship  on the 19th and go to the airport.  That was a relief.  So we have our Princess bus transfers there, and our Delta flight home all booked.  

Day 10: At Sea

We had typical sea day activities today.  While I played bridge this afternoon, Mary went to the Crew Talent Show.  She enjoyed seeing some of the staff we have met in a different light.   On the left is a picture of all participants.  On the right is a bartender filling many glasses at once.  The cruise director was her favorite act -- he played guitar and sang Country Roads, and asked the audience to sing along... and in this audience of people from all over the world, everyone knew the words!

We went to a 70's Show tonight, with the cruise director dressed up as Austin Powers.  We expected a variety of 70's music, but it was mainly focused on the late 70's (Disco).  He did a good job of getting people out on the dance floor and teaching them some routines. 

There is more cruise news.  We were supposed to visit Puerto Madryn tomorrow, but Argentina has denied our stopping there.  And then a few minutes ago the captain made another announcement, that Montevideo has now denied our visit there.  However, the ship needs to pick up supplies at that port, so the plan now is to just dock for servicing.

As to our final destination of Buenos Aires, all indications are that we still will fly home from there on the 19th, but passengers may only be allowed off the ship to catch a bus to the airport so shore excursions are in doubt.   Things are changing rapidly, as you well know.

The good news out of this is we get 4 sea days!  Yippee!  I'm sure the cruise director's staff is busy planning more onboard activities while the shore excursion team is cancelling a lot of excursions. 

This would be a whole lot simpler if they just sailed us to Fort Lauderdale!   That's the news of the day! 

Day 9: Falkland Islands

Well the reality of having our cruise shortened is setting in.  But that did not stop us from enjoying a visit to the Falkland Islands!
Our day started very early since we had to be ready to leave on our excursion as soon as the ship was ready to begin tender service. This was a rather long excursion that included what the description called "a long ride over rough terrain".





We were met on the pier by several 4 wheel drive vehicles which would drive us to Volunteer Point to see 3 kinds of penguins: King, Gentoo, and Magellanic.  The ride started out OK, but as it progressed, the road got worse and worse.  After a brief stop, we headed into the last 10 mile section which was extremely rough - it took over 1 hour to traverse the 10 miles and we were bounced around as our Land Rover crossed the rutted and bumpy terrain.  But we did see a LOT of penguins. 
At the top right is a picture of a large group of Gentoo penguins followed by a picture of an even larger group of King penguins (and that picture did not capture all of the Kings!) 
On the left is a close up of a King Penguin along with a picture of a group of Kings walking along (ship internet is too slow to upload a 10 second video).  Finally there is a a picture of me walking with a King.

During the 2+ hour ride back to the town of Stanley, we stopped so one person could see a memorial to the 1982 Falklands war, since a relative had died at that site in a friendly fire incident.  We still had time for some shopping before we tendered back to the ship.

After we returned, we had dinner in the buffet followed by a new production show called On the Bayou, and which we enjoyed a lot.  It had a nice story and lots of dance numbers along with signing.

Tomorrow is a relaxing sea day as we head back to Argentina.

Day 8: Cape Horn

What a day!  It started off nice, but the announcement about Princess cancelling all cruises for 60 days has changed our plans royally.

We were up early since we were scheduled to see Cape Horn, starting at 7:30 am.  The map on the left shows how we navigated through the channels at the southern tip of South America as well as Cape Horn, just in front of the arrow. The photo on the right shows us approaching the Cape.

There is a lighthouse and caretaker house on a bluff above the actual cape.  Top left is a long distance shot, showing the point and lighthouse.  On the right are close-ups of the buildings and the actual point.  We had reasonably calm seas, but with 30 MPH winds.  The last time our ship tried to visit here, it was not able to, due to the rough seas. After snapping a few pictures, we enjoyed breakfast as we watched the ship circle the island.  We found it interesting that a family of 6 lives there and can only be supplied by boat. 

After that I went to Zumba, and then Mary and I went to the next destination talk, about Puerto Madryn. Upon returning to our caabin, there was a ship-wide announcement made by the captain for passengers to watch a video released by the head of Princess Cruises.  In it, she stated that Princess was starting a 60-day operational shutdown.  After listening to it, it was not clear if we would be disembarked in Buenos Aires  (where the first segment of our cruise ended) or continue on to our final destination of Fort Lauderdale.  It turns out that our voyage from Buenos Aires to Fort Lauderdale was classified as a "new" cruise and hence was cancelled.   Daughter Katie found a news release on the Princess site that said we would be disembarked early on March 15th, but the Guest Services team said we would complete this first 16-day voyage as scheduled.  We had an Elite passenger reception tonight and at it, the Captain clearly stared that we would complete this first cruise  as scheduled.   Once I heard that I quickly booked plane tickets to Detroit since only a few premium economy seats were available.  So it looks like we will be on the ship for another week before heading home, much earlier than planned.  I was looking forward to seeing Rio de Janeiro and getting a certificate for crossing the equator, but that's not going to happen.

As expected, this change in our itinerary was the talk of the ship all afternoon and at dinner. Mary and I both enjoyed a nice Pork Belly entree followed by another first time Chocolate Journeys dessert. 

On to the Falkland Islands tomorrow to see King Penguins!

Day 7: Ushuaia

Our day started with an unexpected view of Norway-like mountains out our balcony window as we sailed down the Beagle Channel toward Ushuaia.  What a surprise - and these even had glaciers on them!  That was a great start to a very good day.

Our morning resembled a sea day,  with me going to Zumba before meeting Mary for a destination lecture on the Falkland Islands.   A quick lunch followed, since we were arriving at Ushuaia shortly after noon and we had to be ready for our shore excursion as soon as we docked.

Our excursion was a bus trip to the "End of the World".  Well, it was the end as far as roads go in South America since this is the southern terminus of the Pan-America highway.  We were surprised to see that the highway was a narrow, 2 lane gravel road!  Having been here and also to Fairbanks, AK, we have now visited both ends of this road and I can assure you that I have no interest in seeing the thousands of miles in between. 
The top right picture shows the view from the "End of the World" site.  The bottom left is the highway, while the bottom right is a pair of black-necked swans in a river at one of our stops.
The bus dropped us off in town for some shopping.  We did quite well in that area, even buying some chocolate for our excellent cabin steward.

After changing clothes we headed to the Elite Lounge for some shrimp and a glass of wine.  We followed that with a Surf and Turf dinner featuring a filet and jumbo prawns, it was our best dinner so far on this cruise. 

All in all, it was a very good day!

Tomorrow we are sailing past Cape Horn first thing in the morning before heading towards the Falkland Islands.

Day 6: Punta Arenas

Our main activity today was taking a boat ride to Magdalena Island to see the Magellanic Penguins.  We were advised to prepare for rough seas and chilly weather. Fortunately neither came true as the Strait of Magellan was extremely smooth and the weather was sunny and fairly mild.  The guide said that currents from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans often mixed in the strait, creating large waves.

The penguins were so cute!  They stand about 18" tall (0.5 meters).  Many couples (they mate for life) were standing around like the two in the top left. The guy in the top right was welcoming us by flapping his wings.  The bottom left photo shows one of many areas covered by lots of penguin nests.  The biggest challenge we hd today was limiting how many pictures we took!  Every few steps was another photo opportunity.  Click any picture to make it larger.  We were instructed to stay on the path and had very strict rules to obey.  We could not reach over the ropes or get within 6' of the penguins; no running or shouting either. 
What an amazing experience to have, as we continue our South American adventure.

Tomorrow we leave Chile and visit Ushuali, Argentina to see the southmost point of South America.

Day 5: Amalia Glacier

We were up early to see Amalia Glacier since we were scheduled to start 1 hour of viewing at 0730.   While it did not quite match seeing Marjorie Glacier in Glacier Bay, AK, it was very impressive.  At first we watched from the top deck at the front of the ship, but as the boat started to turn around, we hustled to our balcony to get some great pictures.  The water was very still so we got some very good reflection pictures underneath a rather stormy sky.

After we left the glacier, we sailed thru a series of channels between islands which was quite picturesque.   I took a panorama of one of the islands we passed.  (Click the link to view) 

After lunch and today's destination lecture, I played bridge and, after talking to the destination specialist, made a change to our upcoming visit to the Falkland Islands to see more penguins.

We had a new Chocolate Journey dessert tonight!  Princess has hired a chocolate specialist to design these desserts and I have enjoyed all of them, many multiple times.  This one was in a pastry shell with a layer of carmel sauce, covered by a chocolate mousse; tasty indeed!

The Production show tonight was one we have enjoyed many times in the past - Motor City.  Love to hear those Motown songs and see the cast recreate the performances of some of the Motown groups like the Temptations and the Jackson 5.

After that show we heard a duo, Brandon and James, play an unusual mix of popular, classical and opera melodies in their show titled "Rock the Opera", using piano and cello.  It was fascinating how they blended very diverse melodies together.

Tomorrow we arrive at Puerto Arenas where we will take a boat trip to an island to see Magellanic penguins.